U.S. Soccer Team Scores on Instagram

If your sports business friends don't know that the typical athletics-focused consumer seems to love Instagram video, do them a favor and tell them. United States Soccer is the latest league to take advantage of that digital marketing reality, placing third on the Adweek/Shareable weekly chart of the top 10 brands using the social-video platform.

Mimicking a slideshow effort by the National Basketball Association a few weeks ago, U.S. Soccer employed numerous "quick pics" of the USMNT's 2-1 win over Ghana on June 18 for its video, garnering 27,000 likes. Coming in near the top is fairly impressive for U.S. Soccer, as it has only 375,000 followers—or 2 million less than the NBA.

The NBA, once again, tops the chart—this time with a video following the San Antonio Spurs' championship victory over LeBron James' Miami Heat. It will be intriguing to see whether the NBA's social staffers can continue to keep the league atop our weekly chart now that basketball season is finally in the rearview miror.

Meanwhile, NatGeo, which has consistently made our 10-week-old Instagram video chart, also employed a soccer-themed clip—as well as a couple of fútbol-loving youngsters—to rank No. 2 this week.

Check out U.S. Soccer, the NBA and NatGeo's work below, as well as the full rankings with our multimedia infographic, which lets viewers watch last week’s top Instagram videos while seeing what kind of organic reach the brands created.

If your sports business friends don't know that the typical athletics-focused consumer seems to love Instagram video, do them a favor and tell them. United States Soccer is the latest league to take advantage of that digital marketing reality, placing third on the Adweek/Shareable weekly chart of the top 10 brands using the social-video platform.

Mimicking a slideshow effort by the National Basketball Association a few weeks ago, U.S. Soccer employed numerous "quick pics" of the USMNT's 2-1 win over Ghana on June 18 for its video, garnering 27,000 likes. Coming in near the top is fairly impressive for U.S. Soccer, as it has only 375,000 followers—or 2 million less than the NBA.

The NBA, once again, tops the chart—this time with a video following the San Antonio Spurs' championship victory over LeBron James' Miami Heat. It will be intriguing to see whether the NBA's social staffers can continue to keep the league atop our weekly chart now that basketball season is finally in the rearview miror.

Meanwhile, NatGeo, which has consistently made our 10-week-old Instagram video chart, also employed a soccer-themed clip—as well as a couple of fútbol-loving youngsters—to rank No. 2 this week.

Check out U.S. Soccer, the NBA and NatGeo's work below, as well as the full rankings with our multimedia infographic, which lets viewers watch last week’s top Instagram videos while seeing what kind of organic reach the brands created.